Firelfly
by Gaea
Summary: This is a story after the movie, when Magneto gets out with the help of a new supervillain. New recruit to the mansion, a new girl with interesting powers. Not saying anymore than that, so please review.
1.

Katherine fumbled with the wires in the back of her radio, muttering, ready to throw the stupid thing onto the fool in exasperation **Hi guys. My newest story. I know it's short, but tell me what you think. I'm working on the rest of it, got it written on paper, but I'm working on putting it on the computer.**

Katherine fumbled with the wires in the back of her radio, muttering, ready to throw the stupid thing onto the fool in exasperation. It wasn't working, and she _really_ didn't have the time for this. Today had been a terrible day. And now, on top of it all, she had to deal with broken radios. She closed her eyes tight, remembering everything that had happened. 

First, she had forgotten her project for school and taken an incomplete. For the next to classes, no one would talk to her because they knew that "Killer Firefly" would go off if they did. 

She was known all over the school for her ability to change extreme emotions at the drop of a hat, practically at will. It was for this reason she was also one of the best actors in the school. She didn't mind the nickname Firefly, because although it was supposed to be insulting, she just thought it was kind of stupid. 

That night, long since over her little brood, she had performed a play after school that was written by an older student. It was called "different", and it was about a girl who discovered she was different from almost everyone else on the planet-she had a rare disease. Katherine was that girl, the main lead, Linda. 

During one of Linda's biggest scenes, a love scene, Katherine fell over in the midst of a sweet kiss. For the rest of the play, none of the cast was able to look at her with a straight face, and the audience didn't even try to hide their mirth at her misfortune. 

When she got home, she was ready to kill someone (she had already approached the male lead with a butter knife and had to be diverted by the director), and now her radio wouldn't work. She was about to drop the thing and jump up and down on it, when the phone in her room rang. The caller ID said SAMIR, DEREK. Derek was a boy in her English class that she had had an eye on for a long time, so she picked up the phone, all traces of her anger gone. 

"Hello?" 

"Yeah, hi, this is Derek. Katherine, is that you? Well, I wanted to say that I saw your play tonight, and…" his voice broke off in a snicker. "When your director told you to break a leg…did you _really_ take him seriously?" He couldn't talk any more, he was laughing so hard. 

Katherine's brain went white hot with anger. Slamming her radio down on her desk, she didn't really notice when Madonna's "Music" blasted out of it. She couldn't speak, though she wanted to badly. She wanted to lash out at him, she wanted to hurt him, no, she wanted him to DIE. 

She trembled with pure fury, she almost didn't notice when Derek began to scream on the other end of the phone. She listened, confused, though still trembling with fury. The phone felt hot in her hand, but she didn't set it down, couldn't, and wouldn't. She wanted to listen to him scream, wanted to hear him in pain.   
  


So she did.   
  


Until the line went dead. She set the phone onto the hook gently, though her hands was still shaking with rage. Until she looked at them. They were glowing.

**So, tell me what you think in the nice blueish-purpleish box below, and, as usual, all ideas are welcome.**


	2. 

She woke up in the county hospital, attached to various tubes, with the smell of sterile instruments in her nose **Hello, all you lovely people out there who are reading this! It's me again! Ah! Anyway, thanks to ~*Chaya*~ who reviewed. (Trust me, it gets better) Anyway, I know these chapters are short, but bear with me. They just cut into chapters that way.**

She woke up in the county hospital, attached to various tubes, with the smell of sterile instruments in her nose. She lay there for several long moments, trying to tell herself that there was not a tube in her arm. Then she opened her eyes slowly. 

The place looked just like it smelled. White. And sterile. B-O-R-I-N-G. She sighed. She's been in a hospital before, but was never the person on the white bed with the tubes in her arm. 

There was a table beside her bed, and there was a card on it. She lifted an arm that felt way too heavy. From her parents. 

~ We came to see you, but you were still asleep. We've gone to a school to discuss Xavier's proposition. Be back soon. 

Love, Mom+Dad ~   
  


She wrinkled her nose, trying to clear her fuzzy head. They must have put her on some kind of drug, because she didn't feel totally focused, and she couldn't summon any feelings to describe what had happened to her. 

Just then, a nurse in a starched white uniform came in. 

"Ms. Bellmont? You have a couple of visitors." She smiled and stepped out of the doorway. A tall bald man (Or he would have been tall, if he'd been standing up) came in a wheelchair, followed by a woman with long red hair. Katherine furrowed her brow, confused. 

"Who are you?" She asked. Her voice sounded slightly slurred. She licked her lips, swallowed, tried again. "Do I know you?" Better. 

The bald man smiled. "My name is professor Xavier, and this is my assistant, Jean Grey." Nodded at the woman with red hair. 

Katherine tried to think. Xavier…She glanced at the note she still had clutched in her hand. Her parents must have spoken to him. 

"We have a few questions for you, if I may?" The professor continued. Katherine was still a little befuddled, so she nodded, without knowing exactly what she was getting herself into. The professor wheeled closer to her bed after making a discreet motion at the nurse for her to leave. She went quietly, shutting the door after her. 

"Katherine, I am led to believe that you have joined the number of evolved human beings, of mutants, who have unusual, literally superhuman powers." He paused for a moment, as though thinking, thus giving her time to absorb this new bit of information. Then he continued once more. "Dr. Grey and I are among this number." The doctor picked up from there. 

"Professor Xavier runs a school for mutant teens, so that they can be among their own kind as they learn. We've discussed the matter with your parents-" 

Katherine nodded, her head still feeling thick with the effects of the drug, but comprehending this to align with the note she'd been left by her parents. Jean looked to the professor for support before continuing. 

"They have agreed that, if you want to," She stressed this, "You can join this school." 

Professor Xavier spoke again. "You don't have to decide now. We will give you as much time as you need. Right now, I would like you to help us a bit." He wheeled around the side of her bed so that she could see him better. "My mutant ability, my gift, is to read minds. Dr. Jean Grey has similar powers, to a lesser extent." This was not an insult, just a fact. Dr. Grey seemed to realize this. "I would like to read your thoughts of your experience, and so help you to further examine your gift." He waited for her reply. 

Through the entire speech, Katherine had felt sort of glazed, not quite able to fully comprehend everything the pair had said. She had gotten the part about reading her mind to find out about her "gift" (She still wasn't quite clear on that point), and since it seemed the sensible thing to do, she nodded and said, "All right." She shifted slightly, trying to banish the sleepy feeling the drug had put on her. 

Professor Xavier wheeled up to the head of her bed and stretched a hand over her head. 

"I'm going to ask you to relax, Katherine." That was another thing-how did he know her name? But it didn't worry her overmuch, so she did has he asked, and unfocused her mind. 

Professor Xavier closed his eyes, and sat perfectly still for about twenty seconds. Then he opened his eyes and took his hand from over her head. He smiled. 

"I believe that I know what your gift is, Katherine. Whenever your emotions run high, evolved chemical process in you body makes your skin glow with heat energy as well as light energy. These same processes allow you to directly interact with any object-or person-that uses these types of energy, for example, the telephone, which uses electricity…" He looked at her intently, waiting for a reaction. "When your radio began playing-" She remembered it only as he said it. "-it was you fixed it-with your power. Of the boy…I found earlier that an electrical pulse had shocked him through the telephone. He nearly died." There was no need to say what she already knew-that she had caused this. The drugs were beginning to wear off, to the point where Katherine could begin to feel ashamed of what she had done, however unwittingly. "So this power you have been given may have either positive or negative effects, depending on what you want at the moment. You blacked out because your body was unused to all the power running through your body. This also may be the reason you fainted in the play. 

She blushed, not even bothering to ask how he'd known about the play. 

"But you're fine now." He said kindly, as though trying to cushion her from a blow. 

"So, you're saying I'm like Electric Girl, or something?" 

"Something like that, yes." He said with a light chuckle. "At our school, every student has a strange power like no-one else's, and they are all trying to learn how to use it. We can help you," He said, leaning forward slightly. Katherine tried to clear her still sluggish thoughts. 

She was a mutant. No. That was impossible. She had heard of the strange phenomenon, but it could never happen to her. No one she knew was a mutant. 

"Actually," the professor broke in on her thoughts. "Your friend, Ceanna, is a mutant as well. We have discussed her situation with her parents, and she prefers to stay at your school. Her gift is to change the colors of things, but it isn't very powerful, and therefore not very relevant to her everyday life. We are watching her development, so that we may be aware if her powers grow further." 

Katherine was flabbergasted. Cean was her best friend, and she had never mentioned, never hinted that she was in any way different or special. 

"It's not the sort of thing you blurt out at lunch." Professor Xavier reproved her gently. 

Slightly embarrassed, Katherine hid it in her normal way – Anger. She shut her eyes as if to shut out the professor, and said angrily, 

"Would you get out of my head _please, _I'm trying to think. _ALONE_." Trusting the professor to his unspoken word, she took a deep breath, and tried once again to organize her mixed feelings. She was a mutant. She could accept that, for now. If she went to this school, she would be surrounded by kids her age who could totally relate to her situation. If she stayed at her old school, she would be among the kids and teachers that she knew. But the little voice of reason in her head told her that there was always the chance that she might hurt someone.   
  


_Like you hurt Derek. At this other place, you can learn to control it, so that will never happen again. Different. _She thought bitterly. _A girl with a rare disease._

**Review. You know you want to.**


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